Phase J follow-up after a 2026-04-25 trace where typing /help
produced two identical "Unknown command: help" lines (ACE fires the
text via both GameMessageSystemChat 0xF7E0 and a paired
CommunicationTransientString 0x02EB), and the server's WeenieError
0x0026 trailer rendered cryptically as "WeenieError 0x0026".
Three small changes:
1. WeenieErrorMessages: add 0x0026 ThatIsNotAValidCommand ->
"That is not a valid command." Plus 0x0414 / 0x050F that Phase J
already added are now covered by tests too.
2. ChatLog.OnSystemMessage dedup. Track last system text + arrival
time; if a second identical text shows up within 1 second,
suppress. ACE's two-path send (gag warnings, command errors,
etc.) collapses to a single chat line. Long bursts of repeated
text still skip the duplicates without resetting the timer.
3. Client-side /help and /clear in ChatPanel. Intercepted BEFORE
the parser passes to the server bus:
- /help, /?, /h (case-insensitive) -> render local cheat-sheet
listing acdream's slash prefixes via ChatLog.OnSystemMessage.
Avoids the round-trip to ACE that produced the duplicate
"Unknown command: help" lines AND gives users discoverability.
- /clear, /cls -> drains the chat log so the panel starts empty.
New ChatVM.ShowSystemMessage() + ChatVM.Clear() expose the
minimum surface the panel needs to dispatch client-only feedback
without coupling the panel to ChatLog directly.
12 new tests:
- 3 WeenieErrorMessages template adds (0x0026 / 0x0414 / 0x050F).
- 4 ChatLog dedup cases (immediate dup, different text, triplet,
bookended-by-different-text).
- 5 ChatPanel client-command cases (/help, 3 alias variants,
/clear).
Solution total: 1033 green (243 Core.Net + 130 UI + 660 Core),
0 warnings.
Acceptance: type /help in chat -> local help banner appears, no
server round-trip, no "Unknown command: help" duplicates. Type
/clear -> chat tail empty. Welcome banner + WeenieError-templated
"You are not in an allegiance!" / "You do not belong to a
Fellowship." continue rendering once each.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
